DAI.I..J LABRETIPERY. 85 



when they sleep they take it out." (Danipier, voy. 1, p. 32, edition of 

 1717.) The labret is extremely similar to some of the wooden ones used 

 by the Botokudos. 



As regards Mexico the evidence is particularly full and decisive, and 

 yet it seems to have been overlooked almost entirely by late writers in 

 treating of the Botokudos and others, and the obsidian labrets which 

 are not uncommon in collections have seldom been recognized as such. 



The following quotations from Purchas give a very clear idea of the 

 elegant labrets worn by the upper classes in Mexico. When discovered 

 the commoner sort do not appear to have attracted much attention : 



Among the rest or rather aloofe off from the rest [of the Mexicans met by Cortez at 

 San Juan de Ulloa on his first expedition] were certaine Indians of differing habit, 

 higher than the other and had the gristles of their noses slit, hanging over their 

 monthes, and rings of jet and amber hanging thereat: their nether lips also bored and 

 in the holes rings of gold and Turkesse-stones which weighed so much that their lips 

 hung over their chinnes leaving their teeth bare. These Indians of this New Cut 

 Cortez caused to come to him and learned that they were of Zempoallanacitie distant 

 thence a dayes journey whom their Lord had sent; * * * being not subject to 

 Mutezuma but onely as they were holden in by force. ' 



There was another idol in Mexico much esteemed which was the God of repentance 

 and of Jubilees and pardons for their sinues. Hee was called Tezcatlipuca, made of 

 a shining black stone attired after their manner with some Ethnike devices; it had 

 earriugsof gold and silver and through the nether lip a small canon of Chrystall halfe a 

 foot long in which they sometimes put an Azure feather, sometimes a greene, so re- 

 sembling a Turqueis or Emerald. (1. c. p. 870). 



Of the six priests who performed the human sacrifices it is said 



the name of their chiefe dignitie [who cut out the heart of the victim and offered it 

 to the idol] was Papa aud Topilzin ; * * * under the lip upon the midst of the 

 beard hee had a peece like unto a small canou of an Azured stone. (1. c. p. 871. See 

 also the Ramirez codex). 



Iu that town which was governed by Quitalbitoi under Muteczuma, king of that 

 province of the West Indies [Mexico] the men bore whatsoever space remaineth be- 

 tween the uppermost part of the nether lip and the roots of the teeth of the nether 

 chap : aud as we set pretious stones in Gold to weare upon our fingers, so in the hole 

 of the lips they weare a broad plate within fastened to another on the outside of the 

 lip and the Jewell they hang thereat is as great as a silver Caroline dollar and as 

 thick as a man's finger. Peter Martyr (Dec. 4) saith that he doth not remember that 

 he ever saw so filthy and ugly a sight, yet they think nothing more fine and comely 

 underthe circle of the Moone (Buhver, 1. c, p. 177-8.) 



In the Anthropological Museum of Berlin I saw about a pint of lab- 

 rets, beautifully polished and neatly rounded, of obsidian of a smoky 

 color, which had been obtained from excavations made in Mexico. They 

 were precisely of the form of the most common sort of Eskimo labret, 

 namely, subcylindrical, wider at the outer end, which was circular, fiat, 

 and polished, diminishing slightly toward the base, which is the part 

 which rests within the lip, and a right-angled parallelogram in shape 

 with the corners in many cases more or less rounded off. The base is 



1 Pdrcuas Pilgr. vol. v, book viii, chap. 9, p. 859, 4th ed. London, 1626. The image 

 of a Zapotec chief with a very ornate labret in the lower lip, and also several labrets, 

 were found in a tomb in Tehuantepec in 187. r i, aud are figured by Nadaillac in l'Amer- 

 ique Prehistorique, pp. 369, 370, 1883. 



